Blog
Competitions, product reviews, opinions, and awards; welcome to the Festival Kidz blog!
Electronic scanning – child safety at major events
Isle Of Wight Festival scanned-in all 50,000 public attendees as well as guests and staff with its In-Site system using optical bespoke barcode wristbands supplied by ID&C.
Using the new In-Site system from Intelligent Venue Solutions, the Isle Of Wight Festival achieved a new festival first by introducing a new child safety service which allows children to wear wristbands electronically linked to their parents’ contact details. As well as providing a fast and easy way to get in touch with the parents of lost children, the system alerts staff if a child tries to leave the event unaccompanied by their registered guardian.
Shlomo’s Beatbox Adventures…
Last summer, Emma caught Shlomo‘s set at Larmer Tree Festival and was absolutely blown away! She raved about him so much that when we heard he was touring the festival circuit with his all-new show: Shlomo’s Beatbox Adventure for Kids, we just had to get in touch! The kids got really excited and wanted to know all about how he came to be such an awesome Beatboxer so they interrogated the poor boy… Read more…
TOP Family Festivals 2013!
Tweet #BestFamilyFestivals2013
2013 is going to be an amazing year for family-friendly festivals.
Whether a festival is good for you depends on what music you’re into and what other things you like doing at festivals, as well as the age of your kids. If you are new to festivals with kids, you may want to read our guide to Choosing the right Family-Friendly Festival.
These festivals are our favourite general family-ones (see also Best Festivals for Toddlers 2013)
Festivals which we think have something extra-special about them:
Festival Packing List for kids!
My little one proudly announced that she was all ready for WOOD Festival next weekend, and gave me this list!
I love how it shows the things she considers important and yet still contains all the practical stuff like waterproofs, crockery and sheepskins!! Read more…
HoneyWoods Feast in the Woods
Read our review of the 2013 Feast in the Woods here!
Back to Basics with ‘Pop Up Camping’, a new family-friendly style of festival-style events
Here at FestivalKidz we are always on the look out for new adventures for families, and so we were excited when we heard about new start up camping company, HoneyWoods Camping. Run by Rebecca Cork, helped by her sausage dog Poppy, HoneyWoods Camping specialises in small, wild camping events across the UK in safe, privately owned stunning woodlands, with a focus on sustainability, education, and enjoyment – without breaking the bank.
After years of working in the festival industry, entrepreneur Rebecca Cork tells us why she decided to create her own festival-style events with a difference. Read more…
Oliver Bear
This is Oliver Bear.
Oliver Bear will be going to Bearded Theory, Blissfields, Wilderness, Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party and Latitude this summer.
Within Angel Gardens, kids can hear the story of Oliver – a Bear who lived at home with a boy, but boy grew up leaving Oliver feeling unloved and lonely. On meeting Trixie the Magic Caravan, Oliver Bear visits loads of different festivals until he finds a new place and new friends to enjoy.
Festival Kidz Team: Our Picks 2013
Every year we face the same dilemmas – Do we go to our favourites, the ones we know and love, where the kids feel at home?
Or do we try out some new ones, potentially discover something amazing, and widen our knowledge of great festivals to recommend to all you lovely families out there?
We’re very lucky in that we get invited to far more than we can manage to attend… but the reality is that with kids (or even without kids) it’s just too tiring (and expensive!) so we’ve had to learn to pick and choose.
Here are the festivals we’ve picked this year and why Read more…
Immersive Theatre for Children
This month I was arrested, hired a lawyer, attended my trial, was found guilty and prepared for my execution. However unlike Josef K there was a happy ending for me as I enjoyed a glass of wine with other survivors of Retz’ The Trial, an immersive theatrical experience based on the Kafka novel where you take your own part in the play as one of the accused.
My love of immersive theatre has grown since discovering it at Glastonbury Festival, the most wonderful innovative event that most people think is just music but is not. It is also theatre, art, ideas and free-thinking. There I found a love of many things I had never seen in the main stream arts: contemporary perfomance poetry, puppetry and mime.
It was there I discovered immersive theatre where you are drawn by the actors into the play yourself, forcing you to use your creativity and imagination to make up your part in the play. It’s exciting, it’s thought provoking and most of all it’s fun.
Kidz Questions with Nick Cope
You may remember Nick Cope as the lead singer and songwriter with The Candyskins back in the 1990s? Well, he’s now a solo performer, but he these days he’s busy writing records and performing his music for children. He has built up a very strong following of little, and not so little, people from all over the world!
“So many parents have told me what a saviour I have been on their long car journeys, the whole family have listened to the songs hundreds of times and they are still happily singing along.”
Nick will be playing at some of the festivals we’re going to this summer so our little Festival Kidz were desperate to ask him their questions… Read more…
Experience over Presents?
It’s my daughter’s birthday in a few weeks and like any child she sees adverts for toys on the TV and says “I want that for my birthday Mummy” it’s usually toys from programmes she has never watched or toys she has never shown an interest in and I know that if I was to buy any of them she would have suddenly decided that she no longer wants it or has completely forgotten that she wanted it.
Last year I decided that her “big” presents would be experiences, namely tickets to the Fairy Fair and to In The Night Garden live, these probably cost the same as buying her the latest toys except she has gained so much more.
Electronic scanning – child safety at major events
Isle Of Wight Festival scanned-in all 50,000 public attendees as well as guests and staff with its In-Site system using optical bespoke barcode wristbands supplied by ID&C.
Using the new In-Site system from Intelligent Venue Solutions, the Isle Of Wight Festival achieved a new festival first by introducing a new child safety service which allows children to wear wristbands electronically linked to their parents’ contact details. As well as providing a fast and easy way to get in touch with the parents of lost children, the system alerts staff if a child tries to leave the event unaccompanied by their registered guardian.
TOP Family Festivals 2013!
Tweet #BestFamilyFestivals2013
2013 is going to be an amazing year for family-friendly festivals.
Whether a festival is good for you depends on what music you’re into and what other things you like doing at festivals, as well as the age of your kids. If you are new to festivals with kids, you may want to read our guide to Choosing the right Family-Friendly Festival.
These festivals are our favourite general family-ones (see also Best Festivals for Toddlers 2013)
Festivals which we think have something extra-special about them:
HoneyWoods Feast in the Woods
Read our review of the 2013 Feast in the Woods here!
Back to Basics with ‘Pop Up Camping’, a new family-friendly style of festival-style events
Here at FestivalKidz we are always on the look out for new adventures for families, and so we were excited when we heard about new start up camping company, HoneyWoods Camping. Run by Rebecca Cork, helped by her sausage dog Poppy, HoneyWoods Camping specialises in small, wild camping events across the UK in safe, privately owned stunning woodlands, with a focus on sustainability, education, and enjoyment – without breaking the bank.
After years of working in the festival industry, entrepreneur Rebecca Cork tells us why she decided to create her own festival-style events with a difference. Read more…
Festival Kidz Team: Our Picks 2013
Every year we face the same dilemmas – Do we go to our favourites, the ones we know and love, where the kids feel at home?
Or do we try out some new ones, potentially discover something amazing, and widen our knowledge of great festivals to recommend to all you lovely families out there?
We’re very lucky in that we get invited to far more than we can manage to attend… but the reality is that with kids (or even without kids) it’s just too tiring (and expensive!) so we’ve had to learn to pick and choose.
Here are the festivals we’ve picked this year and why Read more…
Kidz Questions with Nick Cope
You may remember Nick Cope as the lead singer and songwriter with The Candyskins back in the 1990s? Well, he’s now a solo performer, but he these days he’s busy writing records and performing his music for children. He has built up a very strong following of little, and not so little, people from all over the world!
“So many parents have told me what a saviour I have been on their long car journeys, the whole family have listened to the songs hundreds of times and they are still happily singing along.”
Nick will be playing at some of the festivals we’re going to this summer so our little Festival Kidz were desperate to ask him their questions… Read more…
Shlomo’s Beatbox Adventures…
Last summer, Emma caught Shlomo‘s set at Larmer Tree Festival and was absolutely blown away! She raved about him so much that when we heard he was touring the festival circuit with his all-new show: Shlomo’s Beatbox Adventure for Kids, we just had to get in touch! The kids got really excited and wanted to know all about how he came to be such an awesome Beatboxer so they interrogated the poor boy… Read more…
Festival Packing List for kids!
My little one proudly announced that she was all ready for WOOD Festival next weekend, and gave me this list!
I love how it shows the things she considers important and yet still contains all the practical stuff like waterproofs, crockery and sheepskins!! Read more…
Oliver Bear
This is Oliver Bear.
Oliver Bear will be going to Bearded Theory, Blissfields, Wilderness, Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party and Latitude this summer.
Within Angel Gardens, kids can hear the story of Oliver – a Bear who lived at home with a boy, but boy grew up leaving Oliver feeling unloved and lonely. On meeting Trixie the Magic Caravan, Oliver Bear visits loads of different festivals until he finds a new place and new friends to enjoy.
Immersive Theatre for Children
This month I was arrested, hired a lawyer, attended my trial, was found guilty and prepared for my execution. However unlike Josef K there was a happy ending for me as I enjoyed a glass of wine with other survivors of Retz’ The Trial, an immersive theatrical experience based on the Kafka novel where you take your own part in the play as one of the accused.
My love of immersive theatre has grown since discovering it at Glastonbury Festival, the most wonderful innovative event that most people think is just music but is not. It is also theatre, art, ideas and free-thinking. There I found a love of many things I had never seen in the main stream arts: contemporary perfomance poetry, puppetry and mime.
It was there I discovered immersive theatre where you are drawn by the actors into the play yourself, forcing you to use your creativity and imagination to make up your part in the play. It’s exciting, it’s thought provoking and most of all it’s fun.
Experience over Presents?
It’s my daughter’s birthday in a few weeks and like any child she sees adverts for toys on the TV and says “I want that for my birthday Mummy” it’s usually toys from programmes she has never watched or toys she has never shown an interest in and I know that if I was to buy any of them she would have suddenly decided that she no longer wants it or has completely forgotten that she wanted it.
Last year I decided that her “big” presents would be experiences, namely tickets to the Fairy Fair and to In The Night Garden live, these probably cost the same as buying her the latest toys except she has gained so much more.